Productopia | Rachel Coyne

While there's never a bad time of the year to try to improve one's life, the traditional time to make personal resolutions is at the start of a new year. As 2011 comes to a close, lots of people start thinking about changes they would like to make and improvements they would like to see. But what resolutions are the most popular? How can you realistically stick to them? And how did this tradition get started in the first place? Read more

Monopoly -- the board game that taught us the phrase, "Do not pass Go! Do not collect $200!" and made us love the concept of Free Parking, while hating the (unnecessary) $75 Luxury Tax -- has seen a variety of different editions created over the past 75 years. (Including, The Simpsons, Harley-Davidson, Disney-Pixar, and U.S. Army, to name a few.)

But, the classic Monopoly board game is modeled after Atlantic City, NJ, with most of the squares on the board representing a specific property that can be purchased and built upon. Making up the rest of the board are squares for Chance, Community Chest, Luxury Tax, Income Tax, and the four major corner squares (Go, Free Parking, Jail/Just Visiting, and Go to Jail). By purchasing properties and building houses and hotels on them, players charge opponents money when they land on them; the goal of the game is simple enough: be the last player remaining once all the other players have gone bankrupt. But with the multitude of ways players can both make and lose money, games of Monopoly have been known to last for hours before reaching a conclusion (or 70 days, in the case of the longest known game). Read more

Play-Doh, the goop that can be shaped and reshaped in a variety of ways, is flexible enough to elicit unique memories from different folk. Some will recall the distinctive scent of opening a fresh canister of the pliable substance. Others will reminisce about the hours they spent as a kid molding it into an endless series of shapes. Some parents will even remember it as being the first solid food their curious toddler tried to sample.

It has been a staple in classrooms and playrooms since the 1950s, and Play-Doh's staying power is thanks to its simplicity. The possibilities for the soft, non-toxic modeling compound are only limited by its user's imagination. A single canister of Play-Doh can be transformed into a zoo in the morning, take a trip through any number of modeling toys in the afternoon, and molded into a faux feast at dinnertime. Then by smashing it back into a ball and sealing it into its container, Play-Doh will wait to be reshaped another day, as seen in this nostalgic commercial from the 1970s embedded below. Read more

Remember all that hubbub a few weeks ago about Netflix splitting into two separate subscription sites? Well, feel free to go ahead and forget about that. Having seen the error of their ways, Netflix is ditching Qwikster and going back to its original recipe of DVDs and streaming videos all managed on one site. Read more